I just restored as a new iPhone with iOS 4.3.2 and found I was missing a bunch of Settings, including the top level Personal Hotspot, Notifications, and VPN tabs. I use these a lot so needless to say it was disconcerting. After a bit of deduction, I was able to get them back. Follow on after the break to find out how...

Notifications controls which apps can send push notifications. Since I hadn't enabled any push apps, I installed a Twitter client, it popped up the allow push dialog, I accepted, and the push panel appeared in settings. One down.

VPN and Personal Hotspot are enabled by the carrier file which is downloaded and updated separately (so iPhones can work on different carriers, with the features those carriers choose to allow). In addition to being top level, they're also typically available under General, Network Settings. The problem was I didn't have Network Settings either. A reboot fixed that.

Once Network appeared I went in and my iPhone began to detect the carrier file and settings, and then Hotspot enabled and appeared. Toggling VPN on in Network also forced it to appear top level.

And then everything was back to normal.

I hope.

Have you ever lost options in Settings? If so, let me know what if anything got them back for you!

Hi - I'm desperate for help. I have a 3g iPhone, bought in the US and I use AT&T as my carrier. Am visiting my home in New Zealand and when I arrived, I hooked up to my parent's WiFi and was able to check my email, use the internet and send text messages. Was able to do this for two days and then this morning after sending a couple of messages, I got a message saying "No Service" and lost the local carrier. Now, I no longer have the option under "Settings" to manually or automatically connect to a carrier, it's just disappeared. I have turned it on and off, upgraded my OS, reset all factory settings and it still isn't working. I can access email and the internet but I can't send or receive texts because I can't connect to a carrier. Any ideas??

I did the same lost the personal hot spot toggle and freaked out, I use it all the time!! But I did as it says above. Settings>general>network>then there it was personal hotspot:) so I turned it on and wah-la it the settings page it was right there!! Thank you. You know I love my iPhone 4 but I'm so sick of syncing it becuase everytime something goes wrong and I loose info or contacts or my hot spot!! I can't way any longer for IOS5 that should solve problems!!! I hope.

I have just updated my iphone3 to the latest software (4.2.1 I think) and simply followed the prompts, via itunes and have LOST everything. I managed to import SIM contacts, but have lost my precious photos (don't care much for settings, so that can wait). My old PC isn't booting up so can't get a copy. Can you help please? thanks

Mine didn't work like that, I'm on iOS 4.3.3 and personal hotspot wasn't there, so I had to reset the settings, I guess resetting the settings works better for me because they say iOS 4.3.3 has bugs
And thanx for helping!

i have the jailbroken iphone 4 ios 4.3.1 working with tmboiel and everything was working fine until a week later that my phone said no service after i had rebooted and it lost the apn settings and I didn’t have Network Settings either which after that my phone was not picking up signal whatsoever and the signal is not working. i have tried almost everything PLEASE HELP!!!!!

I was using Net Talk to make free calls to USA from Canada after upgrading it to 4.3.2 net talk cannot connect to SIP server and good enough reason for me to switch back to 4.3.1 unless there is something I am missing! Awesome application when you are in europe to call back home for free with wifi! Please help.

Regarding missing Personal hotspot on 4.3.2
I was sure that it was a bug from Apple, but I discovered that resetting the network settings, made personal hotspot appear once again. The reason for this is probably that I am using a different APN than the typical APN for my operator, as this is the only way my company e-mail will work. So if I need to use Personal hotspot I simply need to change the APN to the standard APN, and voila, it works. It appears that my operator does not support the function with that particular APN adress.
Hope this will be helpful for some of you.
Cheers!

i have found possible bug with iphone 4 4.3.2 if anyone else faced this problem and it's in contacts searching when i want to search in my contacts it does not work properly for e.g when i enter letter D to find contacts begin with D contacts with A appears instead and E letter B instead and so on .Can anybody can confirm

You don't see VPN on the main Setting screen unless you have a configured profile.
If you just restored it, you won't see VPN until you setup a connection. After you do that you will see it near the top of Settings.

here is what I found if for some reason when you restored your device your setting did not keep the internet tethering settings. My menu in my settings updated it just need the APN Settings added for Internet tethering :) Once you manually add it back you will be back in business!

@Rene Those screen shot will be misleading for many. For example, Att's Hot Spot is not on the same screen you are showing. Its under network settings. Some may believe they are missing it when in reality, they are not. Just a FYI

Actually I just checked my settings screen to see if I had the same problem, and the Personal Hotspot option was front and center, unlike the last update where I had to go look for it before I could turn it off (I have AT&T if that helps)

Those that are hanging on to 4.3.1 may want to consider a change. I have seen a sizable improvement in battery performance since the upgrade and it couldn't have went smoother. Backed up with pkgbackup, shift upgraded through itunes, used tiny umbrella to kick it out of recovery, jailbroke with the latest redsn0w and then restored with pkgbackup... and in about an hour my phone was back exactly the way it was except for the iOS version number :)

I found this since 4.3.1… The setting appear once you enable them in settings, personal hotspot must be enabled in network settings, occasionally it will not appear if you don't use personal hotspot too often. Push notifications appear once you have an app with push enabled this happens since 3.0 I think… I don't use VPN they I don't know about this…
Good Luck

I figured out how to fix mine. If rebooting didn't do it for you... Try this: Just install TetherMe thru Cydia and let the tweak do the trick. now Personal Hotspot is back in Settings.
Note: You can unistall TetherMe right after its fixed.
I hope this helps.

Help - I was playing Words with Friends; screen blipped to the Apple - then everything froze for about five minutes. When it came back up home screen was completely different and all the folders are gone! WTH?

I constantly switch my cellular data and 3G off when I'm in an area with Wi-Fi coverage to prevent the radio from trying to attach to a weak signal, and experience this all the time. The menus reappear shortly after cellular data and/or 3G is turned back on.

Its not a bug its a magical and revolutionary feature to remove features.
Whats funny is all the isheep bash android for being buggy but every release of ios has major issues. Even stranger is they only have a handful of devices which they can control. What kind of quality control or lack does apple have. Of course I will hear some lame reason from other posters as expected.

Apple is L-A-M-E. Let's fight over our mobile phones as if there was no tomorrow.
Posted from my EVO 4G which makes me feel superior to all the iSheep who live in a walled garden, with a closed ecosystem which lacks freedom and all the Google awesomeness. Remaining Android fanboy keywords and catchphrases: "unicorn", "magical" ""revolutionary", "you're holding it wrong".

the rediculous keywords go both ways. Fragmentation, evil, buggy. And ironically based on this article it fits all those bills. Even evil the latest article is showing that apple has some program running which tracks all your moves and syncs to apple when you connect to itunes. Intesresting and concerning.

THANKS RN007
One should check out as RN007 suggested. Settings/ General/ Network and there its is personal hotspot. Admin should check this and upload the screenshot of the same. it will help many.
Thanks

Yes, this happened to me two weeks ago. One afternoon I went to enable hotspot and found it missing! A reboot had no effect so I did a factory restore then recovered from back-up. Viola! All good. Touch wood, no recurrence since then.

Micky - you simple need to go to network settings and turn on Cellular Data. A bunch of setting will appear including Personal HotSpot. Just turn on personal hotspot from here and you'll see it appears in the main setting page.

No problems on my end; however, I've never had the hotspot at the top level, not even at 4.3.1 when it was first implemented. I've always had to go down one level to the Network settings. I also don't have that Carrier menu that you show. I notice you are on Rodgers. Is it possible some of the settings are different by carrier? I have an iPhone 4 on AT&T running iOS 4.3.2.

myPhone,
As a US customer, you only get the Carrier option when you're roaming internationally. In the US you're locked to AT&T so no option, but when I was in the Dominican Republic a couple weeks ago I had the option appear as I can choose with whom to roam.